Aces and Knaves

business, trying to forget about my impending doom. It was Arrow. Arrow! I had completely given up on her.
    "Karl, I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. I had to finish a project by two. I haven't eaten lunch yet. What about you?"
    "No," I lied. I never skipped a meal and probably wouldn't, even if I were on the way to the guillotine. Which I was. "Can we get together?"
    "You sounded upset in your message. Is anything wrong?"
    "I'll tell you about it at Norms. See you in half an hour?"
    "If that's enough time for you."
    "I think we've had this conversation before."
    ***
    We sat in the same booth we had used the first time we had met at Norms. I attempted a joke, saying, "I see they saved our table for us," but it didn't sound very funny to me.
    At first it was difficult for me to look Arrow in the eye. Would she suspect what I had done with Elma? Reason told me she didn't even know I'd been with Elma. What does reason know?
    Arrow's normalcy brought me back to earth. She acted concerned but not suspicious. Since I'd already eaten I ordered a piece of pie. After we finished ordering, Arrow said, "Okay, Karl, I can see you're not your usual exuberant self today. Tell me what the problem is."
    "You aren't leaving me much wiggle-room," I said, "so I guess I'll have to tell you. Remember when I told you I needed several hundred thousand dollars?"
    "That was in London when I was beating you at darts."
    "Rub it in. Well, the reason I needed the money was to buy a baseball card."
    "One baseball card?"
    You would have thought I had said one piece of bubble gum. I explained to Arrow why the Wagner was so valuable. I wasn't sure she understood. Then I told her that James had lent me the money. Her eyes got very wide.
    "You are a complete idiot," she said.
    "I knew you'd understand."
    "I don't want to hear this, but how are you going to pay him back?"
    I told her I had to get Elma's proxy for James. Now she looked horrified.
    "Karl," she said, quietly, "you are betraying your father."
    "I know. If it's any consolation to you I'm not going to do it."
    "Then what the bloody hell—excuse my Londonese—are you going to do?"
    I started to tell her about my meeting with the gangbangers.
    Her response was quick. "You could have been killed."
    "But I wasn't." I told her they had mentioned Stan's name.
    This time she didn't respond immediately. Then she said, slowly, "How can you trust them?"
    "I can't, but I don't think they would have pulled a name like Stan out of thin air. That's too much of a coincidence."
    "It's difficult to picture Stan killing anybody. But isn't that always the case? When reporters question the neighbors of the murderer they always say, 'He was such a good boy.'"
    "Then you admit it's possible."
    "You can't prove it, Karl. You said yourself that the gang members won't talk to the police."
    "I was hoping you'd have an idea about...about how to make Stan confess."
    I must have looked forlorn because Arrow reached across the table and took my hand. She said, "You're in serious trouble, Karl."
    "Maybe it's better if you stay out of it. Don't make it a company problem."
    It's already a company problem. Ned's death is a company problem and as long as James is a Dionysus stockholder, even a minority one, that's a company problem. Besides..."
    Arrow paused for so long that I prompted her. "Besides what?"
    "Before, you were always the self-sufficient outsider, aware of the problems of Dionysus and your father, but not personally affected by them. This is the first time you've been...vulnerable."
    "So, are you going to come galloping to my rescue?"
    Arrow smiled and let go of my hand. "Yes, if I can. You and I are going to have a talk with Stan."
    "I'm not sure that's a good idea. That could be dangerous."
    "Your life could be in danger if we don't. We'll be careful. We'll make a plan. We'll play good-guy, bad-guy, like the cops do. Or maybe seducer, seducee."
    "If we do that, knowing Stan's proclivities, I would have to be the seducer. And the thought of his hand on my knee..."
    "You might have to go a lot further than that..."
    "Arrow!"
    "Okay, scratch that idea. We'll come up with something." She whipped her cell phone out of her bag and started pressing buttons.
    "And you're calling who?"
    "The airline, to see if we can catch the six o'clock commuter flight to San Francisco."
    "Don't you have to tell my father—Richard?
    "I will; I'll call him from San Francisco."
    "I wonder if you can leave frequent-flyer